Barely a month old Microsoft’s BOT Framework, will now have Facebook Messenger as a supported channel. Microsoft introduced Bot framework at Build 2016, a service that allows developers to build and connect intelligent bots to interact with the users wherever they are, from text/sms to Skype, Slack, Office 365 mail and other popular platforms.
The framework since its introduction has met with an enthusiastic response with more than 20,000 developers already signed up for the service. Now with added support for Facebook messenger, the company will increase its reach to almost 900 million users that use Facebook messenger.
Microsoft’s Colleen Estrada mentioned on the company’s blog,
“With the addition of Facebook Messenger as a supported channel, your text, image, card, and button capable bots may reach more people across an even broader variety of the world’s top conversation experiences – from Skype, to Slack to Text/SMS, Office 365 mail and more”.
Added to the Facebook Messenger, Microsoft has also added Bot directory. The Bot Directory is a public directory of bots registered with Bot Framework. The directory is open to developers for bot submission and review.
Microsoft looks to be betting big on Bots
With new updates, Microsoft is looking at Bots to make a greater impact in the near future. At the Build conference too, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella has announced the company’s plans for bots going forward. And it is not just Microsoft who is looking at Bots to drive future growth, Facebook has already announced bots for its own Messenger Platform at F8.
Talking about the framework, the Microsoft Bot Builder SDK is one of three main components of the Microsoft Bot Framework. The Microsoft Bot Framework provides just what developers need to build and connect intelligent bots that interact naturally like from text/SMS to Skype, Slack, Office 365 mail and other popular services.
